October 11, 2017

What’s the biggest incentive you can offer a millennial to come work for you instead of your competition? If you answered more money”, you need to rethink your strategy. For the generation that will soon become the majority of the Canadian workforce, they value other aspects of their career rather than a bigger pay-cheque.

Millennials are tech-savvy, innovative, and have ambitious desires that some businesses may not be used to. As baby boomers retire and millennials replace them, an understanding of what the millennial generation wants in a job is essential to attracting, landing and retaining quality talent.

Work-Life Balance:

Today’s high-performing companies implement flexibility into their corporate culture. They give employees the opportunity to set their own schedules as long as their work gets done. The other generations value a work-life balance as well, but millennials lead the way in prioritizing job flexibility. This doesn’t mean that they are looking to work less. In fact, millennials are constantly checking in on work, whether it is at home, on their commute to work, etc. To millennials, time doesn’t equal money; they are just looking to work differently than traditionally expected.

Think about your company’s culture, and how you’re presenting it in your recruitment process. Are you promoting any benefits of your company’s culture in your job postings? Do any of your benefits speak directly to work-life balance?

Open Communication & Feedback:

Although millennials can handle constructive feedback, they want a manager who can assign them a task, give them the initiative to figure out how to achieve it achieve it, but still be available to support them if needed. They crave open communication and want to receive real-time feedback. They enjoy constant feedback because they always want to be learning and growing. They’re not looking for constant praise, but rather want to “keep score” on how they’re doing in all aspects of their career.

Remember, millennials grew up with the internet, which instantly offers quick feedback, and they expect that in all aspects of their lives. They will work hard, but they want to understand the path to progression.

Purpose:

Millennials work for purpose, not pay-cheques. They want to know their self-purpose. They are constantly asking themselves, “how do I fit into this organizational puzzle?”, “how can I grow my career here?”, “how is my work relevant?”.

With most companies, senior-level management plays the role of the decision-maker, while other employees of all level are responsible for executing on those decisions. Millennials crave a bit more than that. They want to do more than just meet the basic requirements. Knowing their added value within a company is vital.

If employers can create shared values and a defined sense of purpose, this will keep millennials around, because that’s something that truly matters to them in a job.

Millennials want a role that offers them work-life balance, ongoing feedback from their manager, and a sense of purpose. If you want to attract, land and retain top millennial talent, design a recruiting strategy that speaks to them. If you do, you’ll have your organization’s future leaders.